Sometimes the
first step along
the journey to
losing significant weight is to set down all the emotional baggage
you're
carrying. That's what Christina Cores learned as she embarked on the
long, hard
journey from a miserable 240 lbs to a trim, vital 118 lbs. Exercise and
proper
diet are indispensable to an amazing transformation like Christina's,
but
taking a good, long, honest look at yourself and your lifestyle is
usually a
good place to start.
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Taking Comfort in Food
You'd never know it to look at
her
today, but the girl who now turns heads wherever she goes once had
trouble climbing
a flight of stairs. Looking back on her life, Christina now knows that
her
first steps toward the obesity that plagued her teenage years began at
the
tender age of seven. That was the year her parents got divorced and the
aftermath of this emotional experience took a toll on her eating habits.
"For a while, I lived with my grandmother as things
were settling down," Christina remembers. "She loved to cook and she
could bake, too. Soon, eating became my escape, as I tried to fill the
void
with food. I was steadily getting bigger and bigger each
year."
Then, at age 15, Christina faced three
life-changing scenarios that would cause any teen with a history of
emotional
eating to further spiral out of control: her father passed away, she
moved to a
new town, and she started high school. Upon reaching 240 pounds and
finding
herself out of breath while walking up the stairs at school, Christina
realized
she needed to make a drastic change to help herself before it was too
late.
"Everything about being overweight bothered me,"
she admits. "The way I saw it, I could not do all of the things the
other
kids could do, because I saw myself as being
fat."
The First Steps on the Journey Back
So, Christina
began her
transformation by educating herself on ways
to lose weight and change her lifestyle. After seeing the success of
several
family members who were adopting
low-carb eating strategies, Christina became a convert to that
methodology.
She eliminated as many carbohydrates form her diet as possible for six
months,
switched from soda to water, limited her sodium intake, avoided
processed foods
and learned to read food labels. Christina then began slowly
reintroducing such
healthy carbs into her diet as whole wheat toast and
oatmeal.
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Of
course,
the other half of the low-carb equation is an increase in protein
intake to support the muscle growth that makes
fat loss possible. Here, Christina had an important ally in two
key products
.
"I was eating plenty of chicken, fish, and lean beef," Christina
recalls, "but it's important to have healthy proteins to snack on during
the day, when you're on the run, and bad carbs are calling out to you
from every
fast-food outlet and mini-mart. Supreme Protein bars helped me stay on track. Supplementing with a high-quality protein also helped me reduce my carb intake." A protein product that both supports existing muscle and offers unique fat-loss properties can be ideal. One such protein, ProSource's Vectron, contains Prolibra, a weight-management system that has been validated in independent clinical testing. Indeed, in a randomized, double-blind, 12-week clinical trial published in the
Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, test subjects showed significant improvements in the ratio of lean mass to fat while taking just 24.4 grams of Prolibra per day compared to a control group taking an isocaloric placebo.. The subjects taking Prolibra retained twice as much lean muscle with 79% fat loss compared to the control group at 51% fat loss. Those are results worth celebrating!
The Final Piece of the Transformation Puzzle
But Christina realized that while
diet
alone might make her thin, it wouldn't yield the fit and toned physique
she was
hoping for. It was time to add exercise into her weight-loss plan. So she started a workout that combined cardio and
strength-training moves. Later, a women's workout center gave Christina a
regimen to follow, with variations she could swap in and out as she
progressed.
She then joined a gym, where she was able to broaden her training
program
without the limitations that at-home workouts placed on
her.
"I noticed that working out
turned into a fun regimen," says Christina. "I had originally thought
I would be tired and fatigued, but it actually worked the opposite way! It
gave me energy and strength. Watching my transformation in the mirror gave me
the
visual that reinforced everything I was doing."
It
took
Christina two years to lose the weight, but her scale has steadily read
118
pounds for five years. Now 22, Christina works at a fine dining
restaurant that
specializes in meals that have under 475 calories per serving. She
no longer needs to fixate on her caloric breakdown each day because she
knows
how to listen to her body and make smart choices.
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"My
diet largely consists of chicken, yogurt, oatmeal, protein shakes, nuts,
multigrain, whole wheat bread, eggs, peanut butter, fruits and veggies,"
says Christina. "And again, I couldn't have done it without proper supplementation to help me stay full longer and satisfy my sweet cravings. They are
also
responsible for giving me that extra energy I need at the gym."
A Lesson Learned
While Christina feels that she's
"basically" the same person she was before her transformation, she
takes pride in the fact that she's armed herself with the knowledge she
needs
to keep herself in shape. "I can feel a strong sense of confidence as I
no
longer take my body for granted," she explains. "It is now clear to
me that all of my hard work was for a reason. I am glad that
with my
success, others are able to take tips and advice from me so that I can
help
them with their transformation as well."
In fact,
that's the direction Christina plans to take her career over the next
several
years
, as she's hoping to find a job in the health and fitness field so she
can
help others do what she's done.
Christina's
Workout Regimen
www.christinacores.com
"LIKE"
Christina
on
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CARDIO
|
Treadmill : Total of 30
Minutes
[10min]
Jogging @5 .0
[10min] Run for 1 min @7 .0 / fast walk for
.30sec @ 4 .0 /
the next 8.8 min is split with the above format
[5min] Incline
of 15 for 5min @4
.2
[5min] Jogging for 2min @ 5.0 /Run for 1 min @ 7.0 /Walk
for 2min @ 3.0
|
Stairmaster
15min
@12.0
|
ARMS
|
Free weights
Range from 5-12 pounds
(3x's a
week)
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LEGS
|
Leg Extensions
100 pounds 3sets of 12
(2x's a
week) |
ABS
|
Crunch Variations
10-15 min (every
workout) |
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